Haunt

"Haunt" (2019, Scott Beck, Bryan Woods, Broken Road Productions, Nickel City Pictures, Sierra/Afinity) is a film about an extreme Halloween haunted house attraction.


Are extreme Haunts a real thing? Regardless, this story follows a group of students who go searching for a way to keep the party going after the clubs close on Halloween night and venture into an extreme Haunt they find on a secluded road. But the convincing scares they witness at the start of their tour might be more than clever tricks and they soon realise that they themselves may be the next part of the attraction.


It's a premise that's been done before in films such as 2014's "The Houses October Built" , however, I'd hasten to add that filmmakers Beck and Woods, who are better known perhaps for "A Quiet Place", have selected a different style of storytelling and steered clear of the found footage style, which differentiates this work from others of its kind. The action is pretty good and the gore is very well realised. The pacing of the film is also fairly sturdy with very few long pauses between action.


My main and only gripe with the film, really, is that the characters are so unlikeable that I didn't feel like I was rooting for anyone in particular. Even protagonist, Harper (Katie Stevens), is not as sympathetic as she could have been. This isn't a comment on the acting, however, and is admittedly not uncommon in slasher movies, where most of the cast are really just fodder anyway. In that respect, the film delivers a good bounty of kills and gore as well as not delving too far into trying to explain the reasons behind the murder and mayhem. Certainly worth checking out this spooky season on Shudder.

[Image: Broken Road Productions, et al]

Hani

Would You Rather

"Would You Rather" (2012, David Guy Levy, Lambrick Foundation, LLC, Periscope Entertainment, Social Construct Films, Dreamher Productions, IFC Films) is a film about how far a group of desperate people can be pushed if they think it will end all of their problems.


Iris (Brittany Snow) looks after her sick younger brother (Logan Miller) but cannot pay for his expensive treatment. Her brother's doctor introduces her to a philanthropist called Shepard Lambrick (Jeffrey Combs) who offers to make Iris a deal; if she wins a game at his dinner party, he will pay for the treatment. After thinking about it, Iris agrees to attend the party.


Once at the party which takes place at Lambrick's manor home, Iris is introduced to the other guests; Lambrick's petulant son, Julian (Robin Lord Taylor), and fellow contestants; Travis (Charlie Hofheimer), Lucas (Enver Gjokaj), Linda (June Squibb), Peter (Robb Wells), Cal (Eddie Steeples), Amy (Sasha Grey) and Conway (John Heard). Before the game officially begins, Lambrick begins offering large sums of money to his guests to perform simple tasks that make them uncomfortable; a vegetarian eating a steak, a recovering alcoholic drinking scotch... Although the guests are outraged, the thought of all that money makes them stay and they decline to leave before the lockdown and the official game begins. Assuredly, the real game has higher prizes and even higher stakes...


I was pleasantly surprised by this film after I eventually gave in to Netflix's incessant advertising of it to me by seemingly adding it into every possible category on my homepage. It's silly, fun, fairly ridiculous, contains several familiar cast members including, of course, the wonderful Jeffrey Combs; a man who can chew scenery in the most entertaining way, and it actually boasts a fair few grim scenes.
The parlour game is equal parts cheesiness and darkness with just enough tongue-in-cheek dialogue to keep it from being bleak. While it's hardly a classic by any means and suffers from some pacing issues, I found it to be entertaining and not to spend too much time pondering over whether its core message or taking itself too seriously.

[Image: IFC Films, et al]

Hani

Jacob's Ladder

"Jacob's Ladder" (1990, Adrian Lyne, Carolco Pictures, TriStar Pictures) is a psychological horror.

Jacob Singer (Tim Robbins) is a Vietnam war veteran living in New York with his girlfriend Jezzie (Elizabeth Peña) and working as a postal worker. We see glimpses of his experience during the war where his unit came suddenly under attack but also started acting very strangely with some going into violent seizures and others turning on one another.

Jacob is haunted not only by his past as a soldier, but also by his past as a happy husband and father of young children, especially his youngest, Gabe (Macaulay Culkin), who had died before the war.

Everywhere Jacob goes he sees strange apparitions of faceless men and monstrous creatures and he begins to lose time. He attempts to find help from his former platoon mates, but everywhere he turns people seem to be plotting against him or being plotted against themselves... What is going on?

A feverish film filled with intrigue and deeper messages. Jacob's journey is fractured, as are his memories and the audience follow him along this strange tale trying to fathom out the real from the hallucinations. By the end we learn the truth and the journey makes sense in a satisfying but melancholy way. A truly fantastic film filled with effective imagery and certainly one to have on your movie bucket list.

[Image: Carolco Pictures, et al]

Hani

Perfect Skin

**This review contains spoilers**

"Perfect Skin" (2018, Kevin Chicken, Perfect Skin Productions, KEW Media Group) is a psychological horror film about an obsessive tattoo artist who goes way too far in his attempts to create a masterpiece.

Katia (Natalia Kostrzewa) is a Polish woman who moves in with her Australian friend, Lucy (Jo Woodcock), in her London flat. While out partying Lucy introduces Katia to Bob (Richard Brake), an American tattoo artist who Lucy had received some tattoo work from in the past. Bob offers to design Katia her first tattoo, but he becomes obsessed with her as a perfect 'blank canvas' and kidnaps her in order to turn her into his personal masterpiece.

An extremely dark and sinister plot which is well executed and creates uncomfortable but intriguing viewing. As Katia wakes to discover more and more changes to her body she becomes both horrified at the transformation being done without her consent and also interested in spite of herself in what Bob has planned, as well as in his other dark interests.

A study in obsession, dominance and retaliation which manages not to vilify the sub-culture of body modification, despite the antagonist's misuse of it. The film straddles the void between exploitation movies and torture films becoming fairly difficult to fit into any one box. While certainly not pleasant viewing, the cast deliver a haunting performance that may leave you looking for the wire brush and dettol afterwards.

Currently available to rent from YouTube.

[Image: KEW Media Group, et al]

Hani

Nightmare Castle

"Nightmare Castle" (1965, Mario Caiano, Cinematografica Emmeci) is a fun black and white Italian horror riddled with well trodden tropes and perfect for scratching a gothic horror itch. It's maybe not the best Italian horror of the time, but it's certainly worth viewing and will appeal to many fans of the genre.

Dr. Stephen Arrowsmith (Paul Meuller) is a mad scientist living in the grand ancestral castle home of his gorgeous and gothic wife, Muriel (Barbara Steele). Muriel, however, is having a steamy affair with their gardener, David. Upon catching the pair mid-embrace in the greenhouse, Stephen flies into a rage and beats the gardener before chaining both of them up and torturing them to death.

Using mad science (it's very different from normal science), Stephen then uses the blood of his victims to give his elderly servant, Solange, youth, turning her into the beautiful Helga Liné. Stephen and Solange then begin a relationship of their own, while the souls of Muriel and David are trapped in the castle by the their disembodied hearts skewered within an urn in the main hall.

To his dismay, however, Stephen learns that he was not Muriel's heir and that the castle has passed to her stepsister Jenny (also Barbara Steele) who currently resides in a mental institution. Seeing an opportunity, Stephen quickly marries the poor girl and drags her to the castle to live with him and Solange while he continues both his experiments and the affair with Solange.

Jenny begins to feel terrified, claiming to hear the spirits in the castle and beginning to take on the characteristics of her dear departed half sister. Finding Jenny's behaviour uncomfortable, and keen to declare her insane (but still married) so he can have his cake and eat it, Stephen calls for Jenny's doctor, Dr. Derek Joyce (Marino Masé) to the castle to treat her. However, the Dr. begins to suspect that there are supernatural forces at work and accidentally releases the vengeful spirits of the dead lovers to wreak havoc on those who wronged them!

Critics of the time considered this film to be too tropey. They threw around words like 'pedestrian' and 'obvious'. And while I can appreciate that the film certainly contains a lot of characteristics prevalent in many horrors from that period, it does so with a charm and clarity that many other films were devoid of. The drama between the characters is well achieved, and the strange and mostly undeveloped sub-plot of rejuvenating youth aside, the plot moves on at a good pace.

Barbara Steele gives us two very distinct characters with the sultry vixen Muriel being the antithesis of her nervous and pure stepsister, Jenny. We are also treated to a period clothing undressing scene that would put many a modern burlesque performer to shame.

The film also boasts some practical effects that still stand well to the modern viewer and a convincing entrance for our ghostly characters upon their release from the urn. While it's unlikely to have you shaking in your boots, it certainly has an ethereal and atmospheric charm that is exactly what I'm looking for in a gothic horror.

If you're looking for a Halloween warm-up film available to stream on Amazon you could do a lot worse than a visit to this drama-filled stately home set in Rome.

[Image: Cinematografica Emmeci]

Hani

The Houses October Built

"The Houses October Built" (2014, Bobby Roe, Room 101, Foreboding Films, Image Entertainment, RLJ Entertainment) is a found footage horror set at Halloween.


The film opens at the end. I imagine to whet your appetite and rev you up for the movie, but for me it just robbed a bit of the mystery out of the experience.


Flash forward to introduce us to a group of pals from Ohio setting out on their road trip around the American South's scariest and most extreme Haunted House attractions. They plan to film their experience as a documentary and uncover the darker side of the 'harmless' fun of thrill-seeking.


They start out with the more mainstream Haunts, introducing us to the characters and letting us see some of the attractions. But their ultimate goal is to find a legendary and exclusive extreme haunt called "Blue Skeleton", which is said to utilise actual torture techniques for a more realistic experience.


Throughout their journey they encounter natural resistance from Haunt staff to divulge their trade secrets or oust their employers' more sinister tricks. They're chased, threatened and thrown out a fair few times. Additionally, they get to hear some more disturbing tales from less coy staff.


Finally, they catch wind of the elusive Blue Skeleton and, with some difficulty, are able to gain entry to the Haunt. However, once inside, will they live to tell the tale?


A directional debut from Roe who also plays one of the main characters, he has brought together a cast which interacts fairly well on screen. However, the film suffers from a bit of a lack of strong pacing and a few conflicts of style. The characters start out making a documentary, but this theme doesn't seem to continue much throughout the film and it winds up just a stream of clips. I get it, they haven't edited it yet (and maybe won't ever get around to it) but you'd think they would have filmed a few more documentary-style scenes and interviews than are shown.


The film premise is pretty good with plenty of footage of the haunts themselves, but there's very little action throughout most of the movie and then, when stuff does start to pick up, it's over really quickly without any explanation and not enough mystique to make it a satisfying mystery. The movie ends with the only explanation being "*shrug* just 'cause".


I'm not a huge found footage fan, and when I do find a FF film that I like, it invariably has some wraparound or a few scenes of traditional filming to bolster out the shaky cam (see my thoughts on 2016's "Hell House LLC"). One of my main issues with "The Houses October Built" was that its reliance solely on 'unedited' found footage reels, made it noisy and disjointed to watch. And it's never really explained how we're watching it. Have the Blue Skeleton staff sold the videos on? Are we watching it over their shoulder/through their eyes? Was this even the Blue Skeleton?


Although, for a debut it's a fairly solid Found Footage entry and, if you like haunted houses, there's a few good scenes.

[Image: Foreboding Films, et al]

Hani

Knock Knock

"Knock Knock" (2015, Eli Roth, Camp Grey, Dragonfly Entertainment, Sobras International Pictures) is a home invasion thriller.

Evan (Keanu Reeves) and Karen (Ignacia Allamand) are happily married with kids, a dog and an idyllic home. When Karen and the kids go away for the weekend, Evan stays at home to work but his night is interrupted when two young women (Lorenza Izzo and Ana de Armas) come to the door in the pouring rain looking for a house party. Evan tries to call them a taxi but the girls proceed to make themselves comfortable before the cab gets there... and what started as him helping them out becomes a potentially life ruining game of seduction and violence...

An interesting premise that became a little repetitive as the film went on. It is essentially one big cautionary tale: On one hand, that women can be predatory too and that it's pretty easy to ruin your life in one easy step.

The characters aren't developed in Roth's usual style, although the film differs vastly in style and genre from Roth's previous films so much that it's not really worth comparing. Reeve's misguided and somewhat naive character is set up from the start with a few scenes portraying his loving family man side and his sexually frustrated side. It's disappointing, but not surprising when he gives in to the two promiscuous ladies cavorting around his home. The devious vixens themselves are not as well rounded as characters and go from victims to cackling, comic villains pretty quickly with not as much build up as I anticipated.

There are one or two fun scenes, but the more torture-orientated scenes seemed satirical and the film in general would have benefited greatly from either delving more deeply into the implications brought up or by maintaining the satiric humour throughout.

A lot of people have expressed disappointment in the end of this film, but I thought this was probably the scariest part of the movie. All in all, the film had some weak points, but overall it was an interesting 99 minutes.

[Image: Camp Grey, et al]

Hani

Goodnight, Mommy

"Ich Seh, Ich Seh" aka "Goodnight, Mommy" (2015, Veronika Franz, Severin Fiala, Ulrich Seidl Film Produktion GmbH) is a slow burning horror from Austria.

Lukas (Lukas Schwarz) and Elias (Elias Schwarz) are twin boys who have come to live with their mother in her ultra-modern, secluded house. Their mother (Susanne Wuest) has undergone some serious facial surgery and the boys begin to suspect that the person under the bandages is not actually her.

A really quite disquieting film with a horrifying and engaging plot. The boys and Wuest give a really excellent performance as the dysfunctional family. The viewer is intrigued as the strange scene becomes more and more disturbing until the boys are forced to find answers.

Nicely simple effects, slight variations on horror tropes and a secluded setting give this film a quiet and suspenseful, arthouse-y feel.

I really enjoyed this film and it left me with a slightly ghostly feeling which was hard to shake,

[Image: Ulrich Seidl Film Produktion GmbH]

Hani

Torment

"Torment" (2013, Jordan Barker, Filmmax Intrernational) is about a father, Cory (Robin Dunne), and his son who go up to their holiday cottage with Cory's new, young wife, Sarah (Katharine Isabelle), in an attempt for young Liam to bond with her. So far, it's not going well.

Things are bound to get worse, however, when they discover that people have been squatting in their home... Recently.

Upon checking out their only neighbouring cottage and finding it suspiciously empty, Cory becomes concerned. But soon, a shocking turn changes the family's lives forever when they discover that they have become the latest hunted prey of an insane family of teddybear mask-wearing killers, hellbent on torture.

A fast and well executed affair with a surprisingly low budget and a good amount of gore, violence and actual characters.

Katharine Isabelle is a favourite of mine and she portrays a fantastically believable female character who is both terrified but capable and doesn't spend the whole flick either screaming or inexplicably kicking ass as if she's Buffy Summers.

Dunne creates a good father character, humanised by his desire to both welcome his new wife into his home and desperate for his son to accept her.

The kid is fantastic. He's a little shit, but he's got good reason.

On the whole the action is great. I wasn't too excited about the reasoning behind the masked 'father's' obsession with tormenting people and building his own little death family, but watching the aftermath was fun.

A film that does what it sets out to do without getting too precious about it.

A definite highlight at Glasgow Film4 Fright Fest!

 

[Image: Filmmax International]

Hani

The Pit and The Pendulum

"The Pit and The Pendulum" (1961, Roger Corman, American International Pictures) is one of my favourite Vincent Price films and is based on the short story by Edgar Allen Poe.

It's 16th century Spain and a young man, Francis Barnard (John Kerr), has travelled from England to the castle where his recently deceased sister, Elizabeth (Barbara Steele), lived with her nobleman husband, Nicholas Medina (Vincent Price). He is greeted with suspicion by the butler and urged to leave, but upon meeting Nicholas' sister Catherine (Luana Anders) he is permitted entrance to the castle.

He is at first told that Elizabeth died of an unexplained heart complication, however, as the story progresses more details of Elizabeth's sticky end are revealed. It is upon the discovery of Nicholas' father's torture chamber that the final ghastly details are slipped and we begin to find that Nicholas is becoming severely unhinged with guilt and fear. Under the guidance of his physician, Dr. Leon (Antony Carbone), Nicholas exhumes the body of Elizabeth to find that his worst fear is apparently true; she was buried alive!

Believing that he is being haunted by the vengeful spirit of Elizabeth, Nicholas slips into insanity,  rampaging terribly and using his father's torturous devices. However, all may not be as it seems...

A riveting tale and one of my favourite performances from Price as the tortured but twisted Medina. An atmosphere from the sparse, classic surroundings really lends itself to the film and the haunting ending really works.

 

 

[Image: American International Pictures]

Hani

The Hills Run Red

"The Hills Run Red" (2009, Dave Parker, Dark Castle Entertainment, Warner Premiere) is a twisted slasher with a bit of a sick dig at its fans and fans of horror in general.

Tyler (Tad Hilgenbrink) is an obsessive horror fan. In fact he's obsessed with one particular horror film; a 'lost' film by a director, Concannon (William Sadler), who swiftly disappeared after making it.

In an attempt to find the missing footage and put a rest to his obsession, Tyler, along with his two friends, Serina (Janet Montgomery) and Lalo (Alex Wyndham), track down the director's stripper, junkie daughter, Alexa (Sophie Monk) and head out to the site of the film. All the while filming themselves and laughing merrily about how this is just like the start to... well, a horror film!

And wouldn't you know it? Things go awry. Very awry.

Bending the rules and breaking the fourth wall creatively, this film manages to be a gore soaked torture and mystery film in the way that the first "Saw" movie managed, but perhaps with less brains behind the plot.

Aside from the viewer prodding plot, there are some very good tropes in this film. The masked killer, Babyface (portrayed by Raicho Vasilev, Danko Jordanov and Itai Diakov), is a good one. The legend behind him isn't too important, but the disturbing physical appearance of our killer coupled with the 'reality' we discover is truly grotesque. The mask itself is beyond creepy and he also manages to effect that hulking but sad character that's often associated with masked slasher villains. He also threatens people by pointing a gun at his own head which makes.... what kind of sense?! But somehow works...

Our director is wonderfully psychotic. And that's as much as I'll say about him.

While I didn't feel particularly vested in the characters, the end scenes are really horrific and I have to hand it to the writers, this is a twisted little plot.

It's worth a see for some good kill scenes, a lot of gore, a bit of mystery and an incredible slasher mask!

[Image: Dark Castle Entertainment]

 

Hani

Trailer Park of Terror

 "Trailer Park of Terror" (2008, Steven Goldmann, Summit Entertainment) is a humorous splatter film with some exploitation nods. It's based on the Imperium Comic book series of the same name.

A group of troubled teens take shelter in a seemingly abandoned trailer park after their bus crashes. They find the odd, kind of creepy and seductive hostess Norma (Nichole Hiltz) there who makes them and their guardian, Pastor Lewis (Matthew Del Negro), as comfortable as you can be in a gross, old trailer park. However, Norma isn't all she seems and she isn't alone....

It's a bit of a mash up in genres. Kind of "House of 1000 corpses" meets "Death Becomes Her". You have the rapey hillbillies with some deviant fantasies, but they also happen to be zombies... Some of whom are better at keeping themselves together than others.

Depraved, gory and a bit dumb, the film mainly sticks to the horror comedy realms, with a singing zombie cowboy on guitar. But it also delves into the more gruesome torture-centred gore, which seems to be the focus of a lot of horrors at the moment.

Not really scary or creative, and not the best zombie or hillbilly horror comedy out there, but I don't think it deserves all the bad reviews it's been getting. I think it suffers for being just another submission to the zombie/redneck/torture basket. But it's entertaining.

[Image: Summit Entertainment]

 

Hani

The Devil's Rejects

"The Devil's Rejects" (2005, Rob Zombie, Cinelamda, Liongate) is the blood-drenched sequel to Zombie's "House of 1000 Corpses".

It wasn't what I was expecting, but you have to hand it to Mr. Zombie that he managed to keep up the blood spurting, degenerate momentum. Not that I was expecting anything less from him, really.

It's a sick ride as we follow Baby (Sheri Moon Zombie), Captain Spaulding (Sid Haig) and Otis B. Driftwood (Bill Moseley) on the run from the police after a large shoot out had them fleeing their cosy, disturbing home.

Being known as "The Devil's Rejects" the small gang wreak some torture and havoc on their way, leaving a trail of mutilated corpses and traumatised on-lookers. But away from their base they have nowhere to hide and there's a vengeance-driven police sheriff, Wydell (William Forsythe) on their tail...

A little different in style, feeling more like a Grindhouse piece than "1000 Corpses" did, "Rejects" delivers the demented goods, but in a different way. Like most violent horrors, it leaves you feeling a bit dirty afterwards, and you're never quite sure who you were routing for....

It feels more complete and rounded off than the first film, but it just didn't quite hit the same ludicrous, twisted and chaotic notes for me.

It did have me looking forward to listening to Rob's new album though!

[Image: Cinelamda & Liongate]

Hani

Hellraiser 3: Hell on Earth

"Hellraiser 3: Hell on Earth" (1992, Anthony Hickox, Dimension Films, Paramount Pictures) is the third installment in the "Hellraiser" series. It's also the first fully American "Hellraiser" film.

Deciding that the Kirsty and uncle Frank story was getting rather old (it was), the wonderful people behind the "Hellraiser" franchise decided it was high time to get to explaining the mystery behind Headboy Cenobite, Pinhead (Doug Bradley). After revealing that he had been in fact human, and also a British WW1 soldier called Captain Elliot Spencer in the last film, they decided this was a damn good thing to explore.

When J.P. Monroe (Kevin Bernhardt), the asshole owner of a trendy rock club called "The Boiler Room", bought some new 'art' from a mysterious gallery run by a hobo, he didn't quite expect what would happen next.

When a young, down on her luck reporter called Joey (Terry Farrell) stumbled into the biggest story of her life without her cameraman Doc (Ken Carpenter), she didn't realise what would happen next either.

And when lost, young rock chick Terri (Paula Marshall), who suffers from a condition where she doesn't dream (I'm sure it has a name, but I'm just too damn lazy to look it up!), witnesses the puzzle box kill someone and is then dragged back into the nightmare by first Joey and then Monroe, she didn't realise what would happen next either!

As you can see there's a theme here of people making some bloody stupid decisions.

Monroe's ugly new sculpture-pillar of torment takes some victims, awakening Pinhead who was trapped inside the thing, and allowing him to strike up a deal with Monroe, appealing to his sadistic side. Pinhead's plan is to make some new Cenobite friends, take over the world and destroy the only thing still holding him under Hell's rule; the puzzlebox. His issue of course being that he doesn't have the puzzlebox... and he can only have it if someone gives it to him. Geez Hell, always with the rules!

With the help of the ghost of Pinhead's former human self Joey tries to stop Pinhead's reign and defeat his army of rock club reject Cenobites. Now speaking as a frequenter of several rock and metal clubs, I have to say that's a mean task!

There's some side plot but it's barely worth analysing.

One thing, though, does Terri not totally remind you of Faith from Buffy? She reminded me so much of Faith when she was with the Mayor! 

The gore is in-keeping with the usual Hellraiser film style, but only one girl gets flayed this time. I like to see a deviation from the original plot, and a little less reliance on convincing the audience that Pinhead thinks pain is fun. We get it already! We sat through the first two films!

However, the dream sequences were a bit dull, the acting is not the best and aside from some creative things done with chains, this film has little offer in actual plot...

The new Cenobites are uhm... blah. I'm sure you've all heard the complaints before. And the attack scenes in the club lose their engagement about 20 seconds in...

If only they'd stopped at three....

[Image: Dimension Films & Paramount Pictures]

Hani

Seven

"Seven" or "Se7en" (1995, David Fincher, New Line Cinema) is a modern detective story about a methodic serial killer who carefully kills his victims in vicious and inventive ways to depict their own personal 'Deadly Sin'.

Now, I presume I don't have to list the 7 deadly sins for you, but just in case and for consistency: gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, pride, lust and envy.

Detective David Mills (Brad Pitt) has recently transferred to a city in America (it doesn't say which, but wherever it is, it rains more than Glasgow!) to work with, and then replace, the retiring and jaded Detective William Somerset (Morgan Freeman). The city is depressing, suffering from urban decay, social decay and general unhappiness. There's a lot of violent crime, homelessness and drugs. Even the flat which Mills and his wife Tracey (Gwyneth Paltrow) - and their two dogs - have moved into is depressing. The camera lens has a brownish hue which captures the decaying essence of the place. Plus, they live above the subway so every 10 or so minutes, *rattle, shake, rattle*.

Mills and Somerset are brought into the unusual death of a morbidly obese man, who has been sadistically forced to feed himself until he died. This scene is dark and creepy. The body in the dingy apartment and the sheer neglect of everything is very sad. There is the word 'Gluttony' written in grease behind the fridge. This is where the discovery of the murders begins, but for John Doe (Kevin Spacey); our friendly neighbourhood psychopath acting out 'god's will' in his masterpiece of gruesome and horrific 'justice'; the wheels were set in motion long ago. It becomes apparent early into the detectives' investigation that Doe is letting them find the murders when he is ready. He basically points them in the direction once he's finished. He is methodical, disturbed and determined. Everything that is scary about psychopaths.

The deaths build up day upon day, with some alarming scenes. The bodies are gruesome and lots is shown without showing much, if you understand my meaning. The scenes are haunting because the camera work shows some gorey close ups in flashes, giving you the jist of the scene, before coming back to the investigation. It's very artfully done, and keeps you watching.

Each death is related to the sin the victim was most guilty of, the cruel but beautiful woman who chose death over being disfigured, the greedy lawyer who had to give up a literal 'pound of flesh'... and so on.

The film is very dark, and very quiet. Pitt's character begins as the keen, bright-eyed detective, fresh on the scene and ready to fight for justice. Mills is an uncomfortable man, in a new location with new colleagues. His wife is lonely and unhappy. His career is not what he thought it would be. His attempts to win over his new partner are fruitless, and he is easily affected by the murders and the injustice of the whole situation. By the end of the film, he is not the same man.

Somerset has already been jaded by life and working in the city. His hope for humanity is gone, and he hates that about himself. He is ready to retire, but has nothing left to live for; no family, no love life, no happy thoughts (no fairy dust...). He is a 'straight to the point' man, and knows his job well. Freeman plays the character as both disappointed in life, and yet still hanging on in there for something good to happen. You can see that he's still trying to keep a hold of some hope for humanity.

The killer, John Doe (excellently and accurately portrayed by Spacey) finally gives himself up to the cops, but is this just all part of his plan?

An intelligent film with enough gore to please and some good one-liners from Pitt "Excuse me, sir, but do you happen to be a serial killer?".

The end scenes can be a bit of a shock for those not expecting the twist, I remember being completely dismayed as a teenager when I saw this film for the first time! Not completely a horror film, but a good film worth watching.

Oh, and look out for Dr. Cox from "Scrubs" (John C. McGinley) playing a recurring minor character!

[Image: New Line Cinema]

Hani

Hellraiser

"Hellraiser" (1987, Clive Barker, New World Pictures) is based on the book "The Hellbound Heart" (also by Clive Barker) which I've never read, so I can't comment on.

I only own the first three Hellraiser films because quite frankly, they start off weird and then just move into the trippy. Put it this way, I own all of the 'Nightmare on Elm Streets' and they get odd after the second movie, but for some reason Hellraiser just seems worse to me!

"Hellraiser" is gross, disturbing and hilariously 80s. So, naturally, I like it! The plot is pretty simple; magic wooden puzzle box, if you solve it the Cenobites; a bunch of sado-masochistic humanoids sent from hell to collect and torture people who solve the puzzle; come and torture you. See? Simple!

A man called Frank (Sean Chapman) solves the puzzle, why, I do not know. Pin-Head, the adopted name for the lead Cenobite (Doug Bradley), comes and rips him apart, and then puts the puzzle box back into its original state for someone else to solve.

Soon Frank's brother Larry (Andrew Robinson) and cheating second wife, Julia (Claire Higgins), move in with their teenage daughter Kirsty (Ashley Laurence), some blood is spilled in the attic and for some reason this brings the mutilated Frank back to life (hell knows why...).

Frank's gorey escape angers the Cenobites who have clearly failed in their mission, and soon there's carnage everywhere while people solve the puzzle, Frank wreaks havok and other general torture takes place.

There's a lot of flayed corpses, skin-stealing and general gore. The cenobites are all very interestingly mutilated, clearly the costume designer had some fun.

All in all, it's not scary, just bloody. It's more of a mystery movie with some gore in there. But it's an 80s classic, and a horror marathon favourite. Plus, the special effects are impressive.

[Picture: New World Pictures]

Hani